A federal sentencing official has recommended that ex-Sheriff Mike Carona win an all-expenses-paid 78-month trip to the slammer for his unrepentant corruption while in control of California's second largest police agency.

This should come as a surprise to Carona, his defense lawyers and other folks who are still pretending that our former top cop was, to use his own description, found innocent of abusing his powerful office.

In January, a cheerfully weepy Carona stood outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse and declared that God, working through an Orange County jury, had provided him "a miracle" and "vindicated" him of any criminal conduct. It would have been a lovely story to tell the grandkids (or the trolls he can still pick up in bars in dim light at last call) if not for a pesky little problem: It would be a lie.

Not that lying or cheating or acting like a punk has ever bothered Carona. But a jury convicted him of attempting to sabotage a federal grand jury's investigation into corruption at the top of the Orange County Sheriff's Department. While in office, he repeatedly coached a potential grand jury witness, Don Haidl, how to lie about their secret financial transactions. His efforts were captured on FBI audio recordings.

Carona's lawyers, who joined the convicted felon in a post-conviction "victory" celebration at an OC restaurant, are arguing that U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Guilford should overturn the jury's guilty verdict or give the fallen Republican Party star with close ties to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a light wrist slap: probation.

R. Scott Moxley’s award-winning investigative journalism has touched nerves for two decades. An angry congressman threatened to break Moxley’s knee caps. A dirty sheriff promised his critical reporting was irrelevant and then landed in prison. Corporate crooks won’t take his calls. Murderous gangsters mad-dogged him in court. The U.S. House of Representatives debated his work. Pusillanimous cops have left hostile messages using fake names. Federal prosecutors credited his stories for the arrest of a doctor who sold fake medicine to dying patients. And a frantic state legislator literally caught sleeping with lobbyists sprinted down state capital hallways to evade his questions in Sacramento.